Man Candy Mondays: William Levy

Jamie Beckman is the lead blogger for the Sexcerpts blog on SheKnows.com. She has written about relationships, health and lifestyle trends for Redbook, USA TODAY, Men's Journal, Men's Health, Best Life and First for Women magazines, as w...

We'll do the forbidden dance with this hottie

Would you care to punch our dance card, William? This muy caliente Cuban-born dancer/actor/model — and current People cover star! — is on our radar in a major way. Certain photos of him wearing nothing but a strategically placed cowboy hat piqued our interest in this stud... and we've been following his fancy footwork ever since — especially after he skyrocketed to fame on Dancing With the Stars. We hate to share him with the world, but if super-stardom means we get to see his face more often, we'll gladly spill our best-kept secret.

Would you care to punch our dance card, William? This muy caliente Cuban-born dancer/actor/model — and current People cover star! — is on our radar in a major way. Certain photos of him wearing nothing but a strategically placed cowboy hat piqued our interest in this stud... and we've been following his fancy footwork ever since — especially after he skyrocketed to fame on Dancing With the Stars. We hate to share him with the world, but if super-stardom means we get to see his face more often, we'll gladly spill our best-kept secret.

We'll do the forbidden dance with this hottie

Why we love him

Modeling, dancing, acting: William can do it all... and oh so well. Plus, we feel like we're catching him on the way up — hooray for fresh meat!

William Levy

Born: Aug. 29, 1980

Hometown: Havana, Cuba

Height: 6'

He's a self-made man from humble beginnings

Born with a silver spoon? No way! William's life had tough beginnings: He grew up poor in Cuba, eventually immigrating to Miami as a teen, and paved his own way to stardom via modeling, Telemundo reality shows and Mexican telenovelas.

It wasn't until just this year, when he was cast in Dancing with the Stars as partner to Cheryl Burke (they dubbed themselves "Team Fuego!"), that he became famous among U.S. TV viewers — but he says the show is as much work as it is fun: "I could not teach someone like me," he told Extra. "[Dancing is] harder than any sport.”

But you make it look so easy, William!

He's a triple threat: cute, chiseled and charming

That bod! That face! Both People and People en Español (among many other mags) have featured him on their cover, and he frolicked on the beach with Jennifer Lopez herself in her recent "I'm Into You" video.

If J.Lo approves, you know he's sexy! But believe it or not, Levy was scared to show off his chest during his shirt-ripping salsa routine on DWTS:

"I don't want people to have the feeling that I just want to show my body!" he told Us Weekly. "I am here to dance and have fun, not about, 'Oh, I'm hot and I'm in shape.' You know? Sometimes it's more than that!"

We like every aspect of his TV appearances!

He's a rising star

We love it when it seems like a hot guy drops from the sky. Even though he's been working on TV for years, William has just recently shot to fame in the U.S. — which makes him all mysterious... and all the more delicious. What does he have to say about his new U.S. fans?

"To come to this country and receive this kind of love from people you don't even know, it's amazing," he told People.

William Levy's relationship status:

Thanks to their off-the-charts chemistry, rumors flew that William was involved with his dancing partner, Cheryl Burke, on DWTS, but he quickly put those to rest, telling Access Hollywood, "She’s a great woman. She’s a great girl — anyone would like to go out with her. But here, we’re dancing. We’re just dancing right now.”

As for his real relationships, he has dated fellow telenovela star Elizabeth Gutierrez, the mother of his 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, on and off for eight years. Despite their rocky relationship, he says his lean early years inform his parenting now: "I try to give my kids everything I never had," he told People.